Tuesday, 25 September 2012

THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR IN LONDON
Monday 15 October 2012
10.30am-4.00pm
£10 – bring a picnic
Booking essential: Call 020 7332 3851 or see http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/archives-and-city-history/london-metropolitan-archives/Pages/default.aspx
From the start of the American Civil War the seceding Southern states were
attempting to gain independence from the Federal government. Lacking
manpower and munitions necessary to win against the heavily-populated and
industrial North, the Confederacy looked to Europe for intervention and
realised Britain was most likely to offer help owing to its need for Southern
cotton.

As a result of this, London was flooded by agents and propagandists from
both the South and the Union, engaging in a war of words, as diplomats and
journal editors tried to win the ear and the favour of the British establishment.
Dr Tom Sebrell will be giving a morning presentation on the propaganda war
and its political intrigues, followed by a walking tour of the historic sites which
were home to the journals and historical figures around the City.

2012
marks the fiftieth anniversary of Algerian independence. Ian Birchall
introduces the first full account of how revolutionary socialists gave
solidarity with the Algerian Independence struggle. From encouraging
desertion from the French Foreign Legion to the actions of militants at
Renault-Billancourt.

Venue: Bookmarks Bookshop, 1 Bloomsbury Street, WC1B 3QEPlease contact us to reserve a place on 020 7637 846 or events@bookmarks.uk.com*£2 redeemable against any book purchase on the
night.

............................................................................................................................Fighting Back: The American Working Class in the 1930s with John NewsingerThursday 4 October, 6.30pm, £2*

Trade
unionists faced beatings, red-scares and murder in the private police
state of 1920s and 30s America - yet they provide a lesson in courage,
militancy and creativity that we can learn from today. John
Newsinger, author of The Blood Never Dried: A People's History of the
British Empire, provides fresh insights into these turbulent years in
his new book Fighting Back.

Venue: Bookmarks Bookshop, 1 Bloomsbury Street, WC1B 3QEPlease contact us to reserve a place on 020 7637 846 or events@bookmarks.uk.com*£2 redeemable against any book purchase on the night.

Sunday, 23 September 2012

2012 A. L. MORTON MEMORIAL LECTURE - Michael Berlin (Birkbeck College, specialist on the social history of early modern London and the British left), speaks on The Partisan Coffee House: a micro history of the New Left?

In
1987, Bookmarks publishedRevolutionary Rehearsals, a collection of
essays on France 1968,
Chile 1972-3, Portugal 1974-5, Iran
1978-9 and Poland
1980-1. Were a “second edition” to appear a quarter century later,
what new experiences would need to be taken into account? This weekend school
will explore some aspects of the revolutionary experience of the past 25 years.

Outline
programme

Saturday 22 September

Registration 10.00-10.30 a.m.

Session
1. 10.30a.m. - 12.30 p.m.

Introductory
themes:

Neil
Davidson – “Transformations of Social Revolution: from the Year One
Thousand to the Arab Spring”

Alex Callinicos – “Old and
new in today’s revolutionary wave”

Session
2. 1.30-3.30 p.m.

The Arab Spring 2011-12:

Anne
Alexander – “From people’s revolution to permanent
revolution?”

Dalia
Mostafa – “The Egyptian Revolution.”

Session
3. 4.00-6.00 p.m.

Eastern
Europe1989 and the
“colour revolutions” 2003-5:

Gareth
Dale – " Eastern Europe : Why was
1989 not 1980?"

Megan
Trudell – “The colour revolutions: made in the USA?”

Sunday 23 September

Session
4. 10.30 a.m. -12.30 p.m.

South Africa

Claire
Ceruti – “Apartheid and its aftermath - mechanisms of deflection
and their failure”

The
Tory led coalition government has made clear its intent. It wishes to
dismantle the “state monopoly” in education. Free schools, academies,
and the privatisation of Higher, Further and Adult Education are being
pursued with full vigour by this government.
Its goals are to once
again make Higher Education a place for the most privileged, while
turning Further and Adult Education into sectors that simply train
working class people in low-level skills for non-existent jobs.
Alongside this reshaping of education, our pay, pensions, jobs and conditions of service are being attacked.
Rises
in bullying and workload are increasing stress levels among lecturers,
leading many to take time off work due to serious illness.
The autumn looks set to see a significant development of the resistance to the government’s austerity policies.
The
TUC-called demonstration on 20 October will see tens of thousands take
to the streets and more coordinated strike action among public sector
unions in defence of pay and pensions.
The tide has begun to
turn against governments of austerity. From Spain to Greece, working
people are saying no to cuts. We are a part of an international movement
against austerity.
This conference will be debating alternatives
to the coalition’s cuts and privatisation agenda, and mapping out the
next steps in the campaign to defend post-16 education. Register online here

Jeremy Deller is a British artist whose work typically involves collaborations with large groups of individuals from diverse backgrounds. On June 17, 2001, in Orgreave, South Yorkshire, Deller staged an historical re-enactment of the violent clashes that took place in June 1984 between strikers from the Orgreave coking plant and the police. The battle marked a turning point in the Thatcher government’s efforts to overcome the political opposition posed by the trade-union movement. Many of the people who were part of the original clash - both striking miners and policemen - participated in the reconstruction (although sometimes in reverse roles), which was recorded by filmmaker Mike Figgis.

PLEASE REGISTER FOR SCREENING - FREE ADMISSION

sertucevents@tuc.org.uk / 020 7467 1220

* Please specify any disability access and other facilities/needs

*****Garden Court Chambers in conjunction with the Institute of Race Relations

Sean Rigg dies in a caged area of Brixton Police Station in August 2008 and the Independent Police Complaint Commission (IPCC) is called in to investigate. Sean’s family are shocked at the death and this soon turns to anger when the IPCC makes error after error in its inquiry – raising the question as to whether it is incompetence or collusion. Sean’s family begin a four- year struggle to investigate the death themselves and in the process ask ‘Who Polices The Police?’

Meeting to Launch Vol. 10 No. 4 of Revolutionary History'European Revolutionaries and Algerian Independence 1954 – 1962'This volume considers the course of the Algerian War 1954-1962, and the response of the French and European left. It gives the fullest account in English of the role of the revolutionary left in giving political and practical solidarity to the Algerian liberation struggle. It presents substantial extracts from Sylvain Pattieu’s Les camarades des frères (Paris 2002), and gives the fullest account of the role of Trotskyists in this period, drawing on documents and interviews with participants.Speakers: Ian Birchall Fritz Keller (Vienna – author of Internationalism in Practice: The Austrian Left and the Algerian Resistance.)John PlantThursday 27 September, 6.30pm, at Bookmarks, 1 Bloomsbury Street, London, WC1B 3QE: entry £2 redeemable against any purchase on the night.

Mike Berlin: The Partisan Coffee House of 1958Thursday September 6th, 6.30pmFirebox London 106-108 Cromer Street, London, WC1H8BZ, United Kingdom

Firebox is the Partisan Coffee House of the 21st Century.

Historian Mike Berlin presents a historical tour of the Partisan and its political context, in a timely event just before Firebox's grand launch.

Established in 1958, the Partisan Coffee House in Soho was the central hub of the New Left.A space for ideas, discussion and often heated debate, it was short-lived but central to a creative and visionary political force.Founded by Raphael Samuel, a young radical historian, the Partisan was the heart of a radical left during this era of events such as the Suez Crisis and the Hungarian Revolution.

With an excellent exhibition of original archive materials including the brilliant panorama documentary and BBC radio program this event will have an air of the late 50′s so expect a few lovely surprises.

£5 suggested donation, includes free drink.Doors open at 6.30pm for refreshments, event starts promptly at 7pm.

Edited to add:
Reminder of Socialist History Society meeting.

Tuesday 25 September

2012 A. L. MORTON MEMORIAL LECTURE - Michael Berlin (Birkbeck College, specialist on the social history of early modern London and the British left), speaks on The Partisan Coffee House: a micro history of the New Left?

Monday, 3 September 2012

This week come and hear journalist, author and documentary film maker Andre Vltcheck talk about his laterst investigative work on Indonesia.

Indonesia: Archipelago of Fear with Andre Vltchek

Thursday 6 September, 6.30pm, £2*

The Cinema of Globalisation & Labour with Tom Zaniello

Thursday 13 September, 6.30pm, £2*

As part of the London Labour Film Festival, American author Tom Zaniello will be discussing radical cinema with a focus on films addressing globalisation and the working class wordwide.

This week the Guardian magazine ran a 4 page extract from Matt Kennard about how the US Army recruited neo-Nazis and people unfit to serve in the military in order to boost numbers of troops for the war on terror. Come and hear him talk at Bookmarks on Tuesday 18th September:

Irregular Army: How the US Military Recruited Neo-Nazis, Gang Members and Criminals to fight the War on Terror with Matt Kennard